Adherence to Diabetes Self-Management and Its Associated Factors Among Adolescents Living with Type 1 Diabetes at Public Hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the level of adherence to diabetes self-management and associated factors among adolescents living with type 1 diabetes at Public Hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. METHODS: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was carried out among 422 adolescents with type 1 diabetes attending outpatient diabetic clinics at public hospitals in Addis Ababa. The adolescents were interviewed using pretested questionnaires to give information on adherence to diabetes self-management. A variable that has a P-value of <0.2 in bi-variable logistic regression analysis was subjected to multivariable logistic regression analysis to control the confounding factors. The level of significance was pronounced at P-value <0.05. RESULTS: In this study, a total of 414 adolescents living with type 1 diabetes were interviewed making a 98.1% response rate. About 218 participants (52.7%) had poor adherence to overall diabetes self-management. Self-efficacy (AOR=8.7, 95% CI:1.9–14.1, P=0.005), social support (AOR=4.6, 95% CI:1.5–13.5, P=0.006), age (AOR=0.2, 95% CI:0.1–0.4, P=0.001), good knowledge of the disease (AOR=9.046, 95% CI:3.83–13.5, P=0.000), moderate knowledge (AOR=6.763, 95% CI:2.18–12.921, P=0.001), and time since diagnosis of type 1 diabetes (AOR=0.1, 95% CI:0.02–0.2, P=0.005) were significantly associated with adherence to diabetes self-management. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: More than half of this population had poor adherence to diabetes self-management. The finding suggested that implementing a comprehensive guideline of adherence and expanding the recurrence of follow-up visits could be important for this population.